National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman participates in a hearing last month in Washington, D.C.. Federal accident investigators were weighing a recommendation Tuesday that states reduce their threshold for drunken driving from the current .08 blood alcohol content to .05, a standard that has been shown to substantially reduce highway deaths in other countries.
(Charles Dharapak / Associated Press file)

The National Transportation Safety Board recommended Tuesday all 50 states reduce the legal blood alcohol limit for driving from the existing .08 to .05, saying the level is too high and leaves some drivers still impaired even though they are operating legally.

The recommendation is part of a package of 10 new suggestions and nine renewed ideas to lower the number of alcohol-related crashes. The board is also calling for more high-visibility enforcement including sobriety checkpoints and to require ignition locks for those who have been convicted or first-time offenses, said Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

“We know at .08 people are impaired, their vision is blurred and they have a reduced reaction time,” she said.

In announcing the proposals to strengthen the drunken driving laws, Hersman talked about the nearly 10,000 fatal accidents that involve alcohol-impaired drivers nationwide, but said most of those are people driving well above the legal limit. She also brought up the 2010 accident in Mansfield, Mass., that killed state police Sgt. Doug Weddleton, 52. The driver who set off a the chain-reaction crash was tested with a .07 blood alcohol level.

The package of recommendations are designed to work together, but Hersman said she is hoping reducing the legal limit for alcohol consumption will serve as a deterrent to people who may be thinking of drinking while driving.

Local business owners, lawyers and even law enforcement officials questioned if changing the limit is necessary and could cause other problems.

In the United States driving laws are set state by state and currently all 50 states and all of Canada call for an alcohol limit of .08 to drive legally. Most European countries have the lower .05 limit, officials said.

“I think that .08 is just fine. I don’t think that it should be reduced to .05,” said Robert Astor, a lawyer with offices in Springfield and Northampton. “I don’t see the need for doing this.”

Astor said he has seen many police video recordings of people arrested who show blood alcohol levels of .06, .07 and .08 and they appear to be coordinated and cognizant and alert. One of his and other’s concerns is people can very quickly reach a blood alcohol level of .05 without realizing it.

Gill Police Chief David Hastings, the first vice president of the Western Massachusetts Police Chief’s Association, agreed .05 is low.

“I think it would make more arrests take place,” he said. “I think you would find a lot of every day people who would be .05 in a non-drinking environment.”

He used the example of someone who may have a beer or two after mowing their lawn and then run to the store. In some cases that person could be found to be over the .05 limit.

“I want to say public safety is number one,” Hastings said. “I think people are more careful about (drunken driving).”

The combination of high fines and the threat of losing a license has helped. A lot of bars also assist by watching customers and offering free non-alcoholic drinks to designated drivers has made a difference, Hastings said.

Rudi Schreff, owner of the Student Prince and Fort in Springfield, simply called the rule “draconian” and said it was not that long ago that the legal limit in the state was .1.

“It is going to hurt quite a bit. My own thought is you enforce people who are getting a real high blood alcohol level, the guy who drives the wrong way on a one-way street,” he said.

Schreff said his staff does their best to limit the amount served but it is difficult since no one is certain how many drinks that would be.

Because alcohol affects people in different ways, it is difficult to say exactly how many drinks in what time period it would take to reach an .05 level. According to one website, a 180-pound man who drank three 12-ounce beers in an hour would have a blood alcohol level of .04. A fourth beer would push him over the legal limit at .06.

“One person can be at one drink in one hour and still be impaired but they are still not intoxicated...but some people with alcohol addiction can build up a tolerance and appear to be not as impaired,” said Baxter Chandler, a licensed social worker and the director of behavioral health at Holyoke Medical Center.

Chandler said he feels most people are impaired at .08 blood alcohol level and some are not legally impaired at .06 but still are driving dangerously because they are too drunk.